Sunday, August 26, 2012

DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS

Did you know that the 8th most productive diamond mine in the whole world is located right here in the great state of Arkansas? Well, it is. And we went. And the whole thing was kind of awesome.

It started several months ago when our community group wanted a family day together and scheduled August 25 to be the day to head to Crater of Diamonds State Park.

As it turns out, several families were not able to go due to stuff coming up in life, but those of us who did really enjoyed our time - though we missed our other friends, of course. We started the morning at Krispy Kreme, a great place to start any road trip, short or otherwise.

We hit the road and drove the almost two hours to get to Murfreesboro, AR. We told the kids what to look for, as well as getting educated ourselves in the visitors' center. Then, we headed out to the field of diamond dreams. About 600 diamonds are found here each year, so we felt those were pretty good odds. It is a bit daunting, however, to head into that field and realize that you will just be sifting through the dirt, literally looking for a diamond in the rough.

The kids were in heaven. We brought pails, shovels and sifters along and told them to play in the dirt.

Bella took diamond mining very seriously.

Keri and I acted as keepers of anything that we thought should be checked out. Apparently, diamonds that you find in the ground are sort of sneaky and may not reveal themselves entirely. There is a geologist on site that will tell you what you have when you are done digging. John did find this thing.

Which turned out to be quartz. A real bummer, since we were going to use it to fund the girls' college.

We headed out of the field for a picnic lunch - most of us bought food from the restaurant on site.

Then, we hit the pool, known as Diamond Springs. It was such a fun pool with a giant playground in the middle and slides. Here is the group picture I tried to take of all the kiddos. Mine are definitely the hardest to wrangle for pictures.

I didn't realize until I saw this picture later that Bella was treating this as a personal water fountain. Oh well.

It was fun, until we started to hit the melting point. At just about this moment, the whistle blew for pool break, and it was time for us to head home.

This is really a fantastic day trip and definitely something to have on your Arkansas Bucket List. It is perfect for kids, especially since you have several fun options right there on site, with a side bonus of possibly striking it rich by landing a giant diamond of your very own. Maybe next time for us.